NOTES AND QUERIES. 27 
in securing one which weighed 7 lb.— Last C. Farman (Haddiscoe, 
Norfolk). 
Popular Ornithological Fallacies.—Mr. W. Storrs Fox (‘ The Zoolo- 
gist,’ 1897, p. 514), writes like an honest lover of truth and an enemy to hasty 
deductions. But has he not tumbled headlong into the identical trap 
against which he warns others ? Methinks so. It is a grievous blunder to 
generalise from a single instance. Mr. Fox says he would be “ glad to know 
whether experienced field-naturalists consider it a ‘ preposterous notion ’ to 
suppose that a Lapwing may attempt to draw the attention of man or dog from 
her nest.” It matters nothing to me, nor should I be in the slightest degree 
influenced by, what opinion experienced field-naturalists in general may hold 
on the subject ; it is sufficient that I never said what is so specifically attri- 
buted to me—was a preposterous notion. Mr. Fox continues :—‘ Ten years 
ago last May Icame suddenly upon a sitting Lapwing. Sherosehurriedly from 
her nest, and tumbled along the ground, as if she could neither fly nor run.” 
Then follows a little literary platsanterte, in which Mr. Fox invokes a very 
remote and far-fetched contingency, but which is obviously clearly intended 
to embody his own incredulity. It would be affectation on my part to take 
this seriously. 
Now I, too, have had similar experiences as the one recorded by Mr. 
Fox, but they are unquestionably the exception. What I wrote in the 
October issue of ‘ The Zoologist ’ was, that it was a preposterous notion to 
suppose, that “sitting Lapwings (that is, females)’”—note the use of the 
plural number, please—“ decoy intruders from their nests by their devices.” 
And so I say again. I had in my mind the usual habits of the species 
when disturbed from their nests under ordinary circumstances; not the 
unusual mode of procedure induced by the fact of a sitting bird having 
been come upon “suddenly ” and unawares. My tpsisstma verba, “sitting 
Lapwings,” surely imply that eggs were in my thoughts, not young birds. 
When the eggs are hatched, vastly different tactics prevail; both parents 
are then assiduous in their clamorous endeavours to draw intruders away 
from where the young are ambushed. 
It is notorious that in olden days the great majority of writers on 
Ornithology were wholly at fault in the conclusions they had formed on the 
point at issue. Even Seebohm, whose loss we all so deeply deplore, was 
prompted to write that the old bird, having glided stealthily off the 
nest, rose in the air, “to flutter recklessly above the intruder’s head.” 
Only a few years ago, through my initiation, the nesting habits of the Lap- 
wing were made the subject of an interesting correspondence in the ‘ Field.’ 
Mr. F’. Boyes, of Beverley, amongst others, entirely agreed with me that 
Selby alone, of the various authorities then referred to, had hit the true nail 
on the head. Let us hear Selby :—‘ The female birds invariably, upon 
